My name is Rebecca and I study International Business Management in Freiburg, Germany. Once in a while I also write for EU-Startups.com. Last week, I attended Web Summit in Dublin for the first time. Below I’ll list the 8 things that sucked at this conference, in my personal view.
Don’t get me wrong, it was really interesting to attend Web Summit. I don’t regret flying out to Dublin and overall it was a pleasant experience. We just thought, it might be entertaining to start with the negative points. A second review with more info about the positive things related to the Web Summit will follow at the beginning of next week.
- First of all: There was no printed Web Summit programme with information about the different events, speeches, etc. Therefore I had to use my smartphone every time I wanted to know something related to the Web Summit. This leads us to the next point…
- The slogan of the Web Summit was: 10,000+ of the world’s brightest minds in technology. But it was nearly impossible to get a stable WIFI-connection at this conference – with all these bright minds?!
- There was no information about the ‘long’ outdoor walk (about a 5 minutes) to the ‘Food Summit’. We almost froze, because we left the main building without our jackets.
- There were no signs, or menu information, for the different queues to get food at the Food Summit venue. You kind of waited in a line without knowing for what exactly you were waiting. This was especially unhelpful for people with allergies or food intolerances like me.
- There was a relatively small selection of different types of food and not so much choice. I asked for noodles and only got a portion of about two forks served, and I was hungry!
- The wristbands sucked. It’s quite irritating to wear these things for the two whole days. In the evening, after having a shower at the hotel, you are definitely done with them and are ready to cut them off.
- There were long queues, especially at the Food Summit and at the coat check. They really had just one wardrobe area for 10,000 attendees. I mean, what?!
- Most attendees came by bus, but there was no information about which buses stop at the Web Summit location. In addition, the buses just accepted coins and gave no change. This means we were forced to give the bus driver a tip of €1.70 for our first ride. Last but not least, there was no chance to change your money (to get coins) next to the location. So either you had coins or you drove by taxi.
You have additional negative points in mind? Let us know!
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